Picnik brings photo editing to Flickr

Picnik’s online photo editing tools — which allow users to crop, rotate and sharpen digital images — is now available to Flickr users through a deal being announced today.

“We think this takes another major step towards fulfilling the vision that great things can happen when all the users photos, their favorite websites, and great photo-editing tool, all converge onto the same place,” said Picnik Chief Executive Jonathan Sposato in an e-mail.

The folks at Flickr, owned by Yahoo, seem equally excited. They write on their corporate blog:

“Picnik has been providing online photo editing for a while now. As soon as we saw it, we knew that there was huge potential for us to join together. Rather than Flickr diverting from our speciality to enter a realm we had no (particular) expertise in, the thought of a partnership seemed much more sensible.”

I mentioned the deal in October and Sposato was openly discussing the integration with Kelly Smith of Curious Office Partners at the WSA Predictions dinner last month. (Smith’s company ImageKind — a provider of online framing services — also has a deal with Flickr.)

Based in Seattle, Picnik has yet to raise venture capital. But a few venture capitalists have been hovering around the company, probably in part because Sposato sold his previous startup, Phatbits, to Google.